Charbonnel

Charbonnel, Brantôme: Should You Book?

At the €€€ price point, Charbonnel is the kind of restaurant you consider when you want creative cooking without the full weight of a Parisian fine-dining bill. In Brantôme — a small medieval town in the Périgord Vert that punches above its size for food — this is one of the few addresses holding a Michelin Plate (awarded in both 2024 and 2025), which signals consistent kitchen standards rather than a one-season anomaly. A Google rating of 4.2 from 185 reviews adds a layer of real-world reliability. The case for booking is direct: you get recognised creative cuisine in the Dordogne at a price tier that leaves room for a decent bottle of Bergerac.

Portrait: What Charbonnel Actually Is

Charbonnel sits on Rue Gambetta in Brantôme en Périgord, a town whose market and river setting have made it a reliable draw for visitors moving through the Dordogne. The cuisine is classified as Creative, which in this region typically means a kitchen working with the produce calendar that the Périgord dictates: foie gras, walnut, truffle in season, and the kind of river fish and farmyard poultry that appear when a chef sources close to home. That sourcing context matters here because Creative at €€€ outside a major city almost always lives or dies on ingredient proximity. A kitchen this size, in a market town of this scale, can realistically build relationships with local producers in a way that a large Paris brigade cannot. When the Périgord's seasonal produce is at its leading , and the kitchen is using it well , that regional rootedness is exactly what justifies the price tier.

The optimal time to visit is late spring through early autumn, when the Dordogne is at its most accessible and the Périgord's produce season is in full swing. Summer weekends fill quickly in Brantôme because the town draws visitors from across the region and beyond, so booking a few days in advance is advisable for Friday and Saturday evenings. Midweek in June or September is the sweet spot: the town is quieter, the kitchen is likely less stretched, and you are more likely to be eating produce at its seasonal peak. If you have been before and want to return with a specific intention, targeting the autumn months brings you into truffle-adjacent territory , foie gras and walnut harvest both fall in this window for the Périgord , which tends to be when creative menus in this region find their richest register.

For a returning diner, the question is less whether to go and more what to push toward. Given the Creative classification, look for dishes that signal genuine sourcing decisions rather than generic bistro execution. A kitchen working at Michelin Plate level with two consecutive years of recognition has cleared a basic bar of technical competence; what distinguishes a second visit is whether the menu reflects what is actually available and exceptional in the Périgord right now, or whether it defaults to the region's greatest hits as a formula. If the menu changes with the season, that is a good sign. If it reads identically to a visit six months prior, the sourcing philosophy may be more nominal than operational.

Brantôme has a small but considered dining scene, and Charbonnel competes most directly with Le Moulin de l'Abbaye for the leading end of the local market. Both operate in the €€€ tier; Le Moulin has the edge on setting (a converted mill on the river), while Charbonnel's Creative classification suggests a kitchen with more latitude for invention. Which you choose depends on what you are optimising for: atmosphere and classic French comfort, or a menu that takes more risk. For broader context on what else the town offers, see our full Brantôme restaurants guide.

Booking is classified as easy, which is consistent with a mid-sized creative restaurant in a provincial market town rather than a destination dining room with a six-week waiting list. Walk-in availability likely exists on weekday lunches, but given the Michelin Plate recognition and the volume of Dordogne summer tourism, treating it as a reservation-required venue during peak season is the practical approach. Contact the restaurant directly via their address at 57 Rue Gambetta , phone and website details are not currently listed in Pearl's database, so checking Google or local tourism sources for current contact information is the fastest route to a table.

For those building a longer trip around the region, Brantôme pairs well with a wider Périgord itinerary. The town itself warrants an overnight stay , see our Brantôme hotels guide for where to sleep, and our bars guide for where to drink before or after. If wine is part of the plan, our wineries guide covers what is accessible in the area, and our experiences guide handles the rest. The Dordogne also places Charbonnel within driving range of creative-leaning French restaurants worth knowing about at other price tiers, including Bras in Laguiole for a major splurge further south, and for those touring France more broadly, Flocons de Sel in Megève and Auberge de l'Ill in Illhaeusern represent the kind of regionally rooted fine dining that shares a philosophy with what Charbonnel appears to be doing at a more accessible price point.

At the national level, creative kitchens earning consecutive Michelin Plate recognition in regional France include addresses like AM par Alexandre Mazzia in Marseille, Assiette Champenoise in Reims, and Au Crocodile in Strasbourg , all of which give useful context for what consistency at this recognition level looks like across different French regions. If you are comparing Charbonnel against the Périgord's creative cooking tradition more broadly, knowing where it sits in that national picture helps calibrate expectations. France also offers other reference points for ingredient-driven creative menus at higher price tiers: Troisgros in Ouches, Arpège in Paris, and Mirazur in Menton all represent what sourcing-led creative French cuisine looks like when the kitchen has three Michelin stars and a decade of press attention behind it. Charbonnel is not competing at that level, but understanding the spectrum helps you assess whether the €€€ price in Brantôme is doing its job.

The Verdict

Book Charbonnel if you are in the Périgord, want creative cooking with regional grounding, and are not looking to spend at the leading of the French fine-dining market. Two consecutive Michelin Plates suggest a kitchen that has earned its billing. The value case is solid at €€€, the booking difficulty is low, and the timing case is clearest in late spring and autumn when Périgord produce is at its seasonal peak. If you have been once and are deciding whether to return, the answer is yes , provided the menu has moved since your last visit.